Russia is trying to hide genocidal policy toward Ukrainian children

After the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Russian President Vladimir Putin and children's ombudsman Maria Lvova-Belova in Russia, they changed their actions and are trying to mask the continuation of the genocidal policy against Ukrainian children.

Ukrainian ombudsman Dmytro Lubinets announced this on the air of the Yedyni Novyny telethon, the correspondent of Ukrinform reports.

"The Russians changed their tactics and started using new legal definitions. After Lvova-Belova received an arrest warrant, they began to publicly say: no, this was not an adoption (by her of a Ukrainian child - ed.), it was temporary protection of Ukrainian children. Currently, we see how such terms as "migration children" and "migration policy" appear in the official documents of the Russian Federation. That is, they already avoid mentioning the fact that it is about Ukrainian children," he said.

According to Lubinets, the Russians are trying to cover it up with other terms so that no one can accuse them of continuing the genocidal policy against Ukrainian children.

"For international lawyers, it is absolutely clear that the fact of recognizing genocide does not depend on the number (of children - ed.). Even if we prove that these actions were committed against 100 Ukrainian children, it should be interpreted as genocide. And we have evidence and proof that the Russian Federation is doing this to tens of thousands of Ukrainian children, even hundreds," Lubinets noted.

The Ombudsman added that the Russians are legally removing all documents on the basis of which they should inform about Ukrainian children and civilians who are in the territory of the Russian Federation and in the temporarily occupied territory of Ukraine.

Lubinets believes that this is how the Russian Federation shows that they wanted to ignore international humanitarian law and their international obligations, and thus remove all responsibility from themselves.

He is convinced that there should be the same reverse process in this matter.

"If the Russians officially say that now they are not obliged to inform the UN, then I have an absolutely simple and logical question: what are they doing as part of the UN then? That is, if they refuse international organizations, why do international organizations not do anything to exclude them in the same way? Let's exclude them," Lubinets said.

The Ombudsman believes that after the exclusion of the Russian Federation from the Council of Europe, it is possible to exclude Russians from the OSCE and the UN.

Author - Serhii Kolomiets, 18/08/2023